Yvonne Mintz, managing editor of The Facts, a newspaper in Brazoria Country, Texas wrote an insightful editorial titled: “BISD made right decision

[budgeting money for quality background checks] for our children.” Here’s the core of her argument.

Sad as it is for a school district to have to pay big bucks for advanced background checks on potential and current employees, as well as volunteers, there is no question about the need for a thorough system for vetting people who work with our children — or our money. That’s why Brazosport ISD’s school board made the right decision in voting to spend $14,620 a year on quality background checks that go far beyond what the district has in place now. The number of teachers accused of abusing students and staff members caught with their hands in the taxpayer till or worse is high all over the place, it seems. Not all accused offenders have prior history, but schools who aren’t doing everything they can to weed out applicants who do simply are inviting trouble.

It’s good to see someone who gets it. You don’t do background checks and expect to catch everyone who might later do something evil or predatory. You do them because it’s smart.

As Damon Runyon, author of Guys and Dolls, put it: “The race may not always be to the swift, nor victory to the strong, but that’s the way you bet.”

In the case of background checks, you “bet” that most of the people who will prey on children in the future have probably been caught at it in the past. You do a criminal background check to catch the ones you can. It’s not perfect, but it sure beats the alternative.

The alternative is hoping that you won’t hire someone who will later turn out to be a criminal or a predator. That’s a really dumb choice.

By Published on: March 29th, 2008Categories: Background checks2 Comments on Praise for background checks

2 Comments

  1. Martin Loves Background Checks August 5, 2008 at 11:50 AM - Reply

    “It’s good to see someone who gets it. You don’t do background checks and expect to catch everyone who might later do something evil or predatory. You do them because it’s smart.”

    Absolutely. Not doing background checks is just plain stupid.Doing a tourough background check is becoming more and more crucial and not doing it may lead to huge personal or business related. Especially when working with kids is it extremely important.

  2. Mark January 3, 2009 at 8:06 PM - Reply

    Background checks are getting insane. To hold something against someone for years is wrong, people change. Look at it from our end also: employers make it more difficult for someone who screwed up in the past, then they run out of money and mug or murder someone. I would rather see ex criminals in jobs working than see them out on the streets broke and commiting more crimes.

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